Hide

I am the Doctor and I am afraid.


Plot Summary

The Doctor and Clara arrive at an old house in 1974 where an ex-spy, Professor Palmer, and his assistant, Emma Grayling, are attempting to communicate with a ghost documented in the house. Emma is a emotional sensitive and Palmer has her attempt to contact the ghost of the house. The Doctor poses as an inspector from the ministry and is very intrigued at what the two are doing. After assuring Palmer that the Doctor is not there to steal his work, the Doctor and Clara are given leave to explore.

They head to the music room where the Doctor discovers a cold spot. Clara feels increasing agitated and there is a surge of power. They run out and get an additional scare when Clara thinks the Doctor is holding her hand but he isn't. The extra power surges into the room and a black disk appears. The ghost image also appears and the Doctor grabs Palmer's camera, taking pictures both of the image and the disk. There is a shriek and the disk collapses but an image of "help me" appears burned on the wall.

The Doctor and Palmer develop the pictures while Clara helps Emma recover a bit, having been emotionally disturbed by the ghost's outburst. Developing the pictures, the Doctor gets an idea and borrows Palmer's camera. He and Clara go into the TARDIS and travel back to the dawn of Earth. They then travel forward in time taking pictures at distinct intervals, ending in the final days of the Earth. Clara is overwhelmed by seeing the lifespan of the Earth but snaps herself back as they arrive back at the house in 1974.

The Doctor presents a slide show of the pictures he took, showing the ghost is actually a woman named Hila who was sent on a time travel experimental mission. She is now in a pocket universe, moving at a different time pace. The Doctor rigs a device and hooks it to the TARDIS. He amplifies the psychic energy of Emma with the device and uses her to reopen the wormhole. Once open he jumps through with a length of rope.

The Doctor finds himself in a misty wood where Hila runs into him, pursued by some creature. They run away from it but lose the location of the rope in the mist. Emma envisions the house and it appears in the mist. They run to it and manage to keep the creature at bay as they do. They find the rope and Hila is pulled up and out. However the strain is too much for Emma and the portal collapses before the Doctor can come through.

Clara urges Emma to reopen the portal but she is exhausted. Clara then runs out to the TARDIS to try and rescue him herself. The TARDIS holographic interface kicks on with an image of Clara appearing. The TARDIS notes the likelihood of failure and destruction of the TARDIS but Clara appeals anyway. The TARDIS lets her in and takes off at the same as Emma decides to try and open the porthole again with Hila and Palmer providing mental support.

In the forest, the Doctor is initially overcome by fear but opts to confront the creature. As he does so, the creature leaps on him. At that moment, the TARDIS flies in with Clara barely holding on inside. The Doctor grabs the exterior of the TARDIS and it flies through the porthole and rematerializes in the house just as Emma collapses a second time.

The next day, the Doctor reveals to Emma the real reason he came to see her and that was to ask about Clara. Emma is slightly confused and tells him that she is an ordinary girl with no special powers or abilities. Slightly disappointed, the Doctor reveals that Hila strong connection to Emma and Palmer was that she is descended from them and that blood called to blood.

He and Clara are about to leave when the Doctor realizes that there is a second creature that is living in the shadows of the house, which scared them during their first look around. He also realizes that the creature in the pocket universe was looking for it's mate and not attacking either him or Hila. He asks Emma to open the porthole one last time and flies in with the TARDIS, inviting the creature back to reunite with his mate.

Analysis

I sincerely doubt there are many people out there that would compare Hide and Victory of the Daleks but there was something that struck me as being similar between the two. In both stories, you have a decent premise and things start off very well. However, in both stories things go downhill until you reach an end that you are unsatisfied with. For me, the downward trajectory of Victory of the Daleks was much sharper and finished in a far lower spot, but Hide did finish in a lower position that it started for me.

Now, that is not to say that Hide is bad. Far from it actually. But the first ten to fifteen minutes of the story are about as good as you can get with a creepy, ghost-horror genre and still be family friendly. From the start to the point where Clara and the Doctor run screaming back to the lab set up is about as thrilling as you could possibly ask for. From that point, although still good in most areas, it doesn't quite keep that same level of interest and the story suffers for it, despite its still high quality.

The Eleventh Doctor is quite entertaining here despite fan obsession over his pronunciation of "Metebelis." He is whimsical but also serious. He also has a high sense of alien-ness that provides a high amount of levity when things get a bit serious. But he also does scarred very well. His reaction at the start when he and Clara get freaked out in the music room is done well to convey a real sense of fear. He also does very well when cut off in the pocket universe and confronting the unknown and his level of fear there.

Clara was pretty good as well. Again, Clara is best when she is on the wrong foot, which she is more often than not when paired with the Eleventh Doctor. It is also amusing to see her interaction with the TARDIS and the TARDIS' open hostility towards her, including the fun little dig of using Clara's own image as the holographic interface that she will actually pay attention to. But Clara is in more of a traditional companion role here and I think she is better for it.

Palmer and Emma are also quite good in this one. Palmer does very well in showing a man haunted by his deeds of the past and trying to make up for it. Emma also does well in her empathy and the mixed emotions of trying to figure if Palmer cares for her or not. Theirs' is the one romantic sub-plot that I actually buy. I'm also mildly amused that the actress who plays Emma will be going on to play Verity Lambert in only a short span of time after this in An Adventure in Space and Time.

The sets and production values were also well done with the misty island being quite creepy and the old house also being very well done. The whole episode was shot with tight, dark shots that amplified the creepiness. There were also a few instances of scenes being done at a very slightly odd angle that I think contributed to a feeling of wrongness and helped keep the audience on edge.

So with all that, why does the story go downhill? Part of it is inevitable as a scary story naturally becomes less interesting the more you reveal. The unknown is what is truly scary so as soon as the Doctor returns with details of Hila and the pocket universe, it is instantly less scary because there is a handle on what the nature of the scare is. That's not a problem that can be avoided so deflation is inevitable. There is also a shift where the first fifteen minutes are more of a Hitchcockian thriller and the later portion becomes a scary monster to be avoided. Focusing the point of fear on a monster, which is very similar to other Doctor Who, also causes the episode to lose steam because a monster can be avoided or dealt with in a tangible way. It does not take the all consuming tactic that an unknown sense can take.

Even with those, I think this story does very well but it really cuts itself down with the romance bit at the end. Suddenly its not a monster looking to eat or feeding off fear, but instead a misunderstood creature just looking for it's mate. It's a tacked on, saccharine ending that just ruins the whole mood of the previous 40 minutes. It's not an episode killer for me, but it renders all the fear and suspense of the previous time moot and it makes the episode as a whole feel more like a wild goose chase. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth, especially as it's a tack on that only spools itself out for an additional minute. There is no reunion scene or any breadcrumbs of the connection aside from the flash glimpses of the other creature in the house in the first fifteen minutes.

On the whole, the good outweighs the bad but the bad is the last thing you're left with and that is just unfortunate. I would never advocate turning a story off before it was done but I could see people stop watching just before the Doctor walks into the TARDIS and having a higher opinion of it. I still have a high opinion of it and would easily give the first fifteen minutes full marks. The rest drags it down but it's still an overly enjoyable story to watch and a highly rated one for Series 7B.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5